Posted by Brad on July 29th, 2006 — Posted in Projects
I did almost nothing today. I had big plans of getting the water supply pipes ready for a new sink, plus a dishwasher, plus a water line to a refrigerator ice maker. I was going to have to cut off the old valves with a pipe cutter and solder new ones on. I read all about sweating copper pipes and joining new valves on. I actually was planning on putting threaded nipples on the pipes, and then I could just twist any valve I wanted onto the new threads. So I went to the store and started finding all the supplies I needed when all of a sudden I saw them — valves that use compression fittings. “Holy cats!” I said. “This will be WAY simpler than I thought.” And it was! My new valves are on. Once they’re hooked up and in use, I will have to see if the compression fittings need tightening, but other than that, the plumbing is done! Woo hoo! Here’s a picture of my happy work:
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Posted by Brad on July 28th, 2006 — Posted in Projects
I pulled the plaster and the lathe off the outside wall of the kitchen today. The discussion boards I found on the internet said, “Never pull plaster walls down!”, but I had to. They were in such bad shape. I used a bandanna to mask my breathing. It apparently wasn’t enough. You can see the white tracks of death where I inhaled plaster dust. I had all kinds of dirty boogers. Thank God for our natural filtration system: snot!
Anyway, the walls came down easily enough. It’s interesting to see how the house was constructed. The outside wall is two layers of bricks thick. In the inside layer, there are wooden “bricks” mortared into the wall. The small wall studs are nailed into these wooden blocks. I will be looking for a way to reinforce the wall studs before I start hanging the cabinets on them. I don’t want the cabinets all falling off the walls! Here are some pics of today’s work:
The wall under the window is CEMENT! I don’t think I’ll mess with it.
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Posted by Brad on July 27th, 2006 — Posted in Projects
I’ve pulled out the base cabinets. They went more quickly than the wall cabinets. The counter top wasn’t held on by anything but gravity. That surprised me a little. One trip to the dump so far.
I bought some books today. I think I might be able to do the electrical stuff by myself. What I want to do seems pretty basic. And I plan to pull the slats and the plaster down, so I can easily access the old wiring. I have to study the information some more…
In the mean time, here are some before and after pictures:
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Posted by Brad on July 26th, 2006 — Posted in Projects
Oh, I forgot to write this…
All the cabinets had “Fugmann” written on the backs of them. I had seen that name before because my next door neighbor found a Luther’s Small Catechism in his house and gave it to me because it had my address written in it. It belonged to Ruth Fugmann and was dated 1936. It also had a “Catechetical Class Report Card” in it. It was signed by Charles Fugmann. I was trying to find some stuff on the web about them. All I could find was Charles’ birth and death info- Born: Feb 9, 1901 — Died: Dec 1967. I don’t think the Fugmanns would be the first residents of this house because it was built in 1901. But that’s more info than I had before about previous owners. Somebody had a Charles Fugmann in his family history web page, but the birth date was 1860-something. Charles’ grandpa?
Check out Ruth’s catechism:
Look what is written inside the cover. It’s the history of the world!
In the lower right corner it says “Present Time 1936″. Cool!
And look! It’s my address!
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Posted by Brad on July 26th, 2006 — Posted in Projects
I’ve pulled the rest of the wall cabinets off the wall. It was fun, but messy. I think I’m going to have to pull down all the plaster from that wall and replace it with drywall. At least that’ll give the electrician some room to run new wires for lights and a dishwasher. Could I run the wires myself? Maybe I’ll buy a book…
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